What's New in Active Directory in Windows Server

08/31/2016

2 minutes to read

In this article

Applies To: Windows Server 2012 R2

The content in this topic describes what's new and changed in Active Directory in Windows Server 2012 R2. This content focuses on changes that will potentially have the greatest impact on your use of this release.

One of the most prevalent IT industry trends at the moment is the proliferation of consumer devices in the workplace. Employees and partners want to access protected corporate data from their personal devices, from checking email to the consumption of advanced business applications. IT administrators in organizations, while wanting to enable this level of productivity, would like to continue to ensure that they can manage risk and govern the use of corporate resources.

What's New in Active Directory in Windows Server 2012 R2

In Windows Server 2012 R2, Active Directory has been enhanced with the following value propositions to allow IT risk management while also enabling IT to empower their users to be productive from a variety of devices:

IT administrators can allow devices to be associated with the company’s Active Directory and use this association as a seamless second factor authentication.

Enable users to use single sign-on (SSO) from devices that are associated with the company’s Active Directory.

Enable users to connect to applications and services from anywhere with Web Application Proxy.

Manage the risk of users working from anywhere, accessing protected data from their devices, with Multi-factor Access Control and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

These value propositions are described in detail in the following guides:

This guide describes the key concepts and provides the step-by-step walkthrough instructions for Workplace Join: configuring the Device Registration Service (DRS), workplace join with a Windows device, workplace join with an iOS device, and how to deal with lost or stolen devices.

This guide describes and provides step-by-step walkthrough instructions for using Web Application Proxy – a new Remote Access role service in Windows Server 2012 R2 – to provide access to a sample web application by using claims-based authentication using AD FS authentication.

This guide describes the enhanced IT risk management strategies available in AD FS in Windows Server 2012 R2 and provides step-by-step walkthrough instructions for configuring and verifying the solution of managing risk with multi-factor access control based on multiple criteria.

This guide describes the authentication mechanisms available in AD FS in Windows Server 2012 R2 and provides step-by-step walkthrough instructions for configuring and verifying the solution of using AD FS to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) based on the user data.